and a Frenchman, Louis Paulhan. Claude Grahame-White was born in 1879 in Hampshire, England. He was educated at Crondall House School in Farnham, and later at Bedford Grammar School between 1892 and 1896. Apprenticed to a local engineering firm, he later worked for his uncle Francis Willey, 1st Baron Barnby. He started his own motor vehicle business in Bradford, before travelling to South Africa to hunt big game. In 1909, inspired by Blériot's historic cross-channel flight, he went to France to learn how to fly, and by the following January he became one of the first Englishmen to obtain an aviator's certificate. He also started a flying school at Pau, which he moved to England later that year. Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan, better known as Louis Paulhan, was born in 1883 in Pézenas, in the south of France. After doing military service at the balloon school at Chalais-Meudon he had worked as an assistant for Ferdinand Ferber before winning a Voisin biplane in an aircraft design competition. Paulhan taught himself to fly using this aircraft, and was awarded Aéro Club de France licence No. 10 on 17 July. Paulhan was no stranger to British audiences; he competed in an early flight meeting in October 1909 at Blackpool, and shortly afterwards flew in an exhibition at the Brooklands motor racing circuit. Paulhan took part in many airshows, including several in the United States of America, and at La Brayelle Airfield in France, where in July 1909 he set new records for altitude and flight duration. Grahame-White's first attempt Grahame-White was the first to attempt the journey. He planned to take off at 5:00 am on 23 April 1910, near the Plumes Hotel in the London suburb of Park Royal. A crowd of journalists and interested spectators assembled there from about 4:00 am, with more arriving by car, until about 200–300 were present. The Times described the sky as "clear and starlit", and the weather as "very cold, as there was a slight frost." Grahame-White arrived at about 4:30 am and began to prepare his Farman III biplane. The aeroplane was brought into the field from the yard it was stored in, and its seven-cylinder rotary engine was started. Once the engine warmed up, Grahame-White took his seat. Several people wished him well, including his sister, mother and Henry Farman. He guided the biplane for about 30–60 yards/metres across the frosted